1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of setting an environment for a portable data storage device, e.g., a digital video camcorder, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable music player, or the like, and more particularly, to a method of setting an environment for a portable data storage device for an easy setting of the environment without requiring a complicated key manipulation on the portable device, by transmitting environment setting data through a host computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, portable data storage devices receive, store and reproduce data, typically in the form of digital signals. For example, a digital video camcorder (hereinafter called DVC) records and reproduces video and audio data. The DVC has advantages over an analog type device in terms of high video and audio quality and easy storage and editing. To satisfy a demand for a more compact-sized portable device, a number of operational keys on an operation panel of the portable device is reduced and simplified. At the same time, to satisfy a demand for a portable device with more functions available, the same one key is set to correspond to a plurality of functions. requiring the user to typically manipulate a particular sequence of keys several times to select a desired function, and usually needs more than several times of trial and error until the user learns to manipulate the key buttons efficiently. The complicated and non-intuitive input interface of the portable devices described above, while contributing greatly to the compact size and the portability of the portable devices, is not as convenient as a more extensive input interface, e.g., a full keyboard, a mouse, or the like, provided in a personal computer (PC).
While it is generally known that a portable device may be made to connect with and to exchange data to and from a host computer, e.g., a PC, unfortunately, the data allowed to be exchanged is limited to application related data, e.g., the audio/video data in the case of the DVC; contact, schedule and/or appointment data of a PDA; or one or more music files in the case of a portable music player, e.g., an MP3 player, etc. Accordingly, a user must still use the less convenient input interface of the portable device in order to set the operation environment, e.g., the configuration setting preference, the time and date setting or the like, of the portable device itself.
In many cases, while accessing the application related data is sufficiently intuitive, to set or reconfigure the environment setting relating to the configuration of the operating environment of the portable device is less frequently performed, and is thus relatively less intuitive. By way of example, a user of a DVC may encounter difficulty in setting a recording/reproducing method selection, a video/audio recording pattern selection, and a time setting selection, using the input buttons of the DVC.